Kolkata: The new wave Bengali cinema has met success at the box office and also won critical acclaim at the same time, but eminent Malayali filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan dismisses the phenomenon as a 'compromise'. "I cannot appreciate the trend. It is a compromise on the part of the filmmakers. They are doing something which is a submission to the demands of the market," Gopalakrishnan said during a recent visit to...
11:43 PM, Jun 08, 2012
Mumbai: Bollywood has always opened its gates for budding talent and there seems to be a sudden demand for Bengali actors in Hindi cinema post the box-office success of Vidya Balan starrer 'Kahaani' and Paoli Dam's 'Hate Story'. As 'Kahaani' director Sujoy Ghosh plans to bring Vidya Balan back as Bidya Bagchi in a sequel, Kolkata and the Bengali stars are set to become more important. "Writing begins. I have...
12:23 PM, May 31, 2012
New Delhi: Item girl Rakhi Sawant is all set to star in the Bengali remake of 'The Dirty Picture' and she says she will be better than National Award winning actress Vidya Balan. The 33-year-old will play a sex siren in the untitled film to be directed by Bengali actress-turned-politician Shatabdi Roy and she says her film will set more tongues wagging than the original. "The film is based on...
11:00 AM, May 25, 2012
New Delhi: I spent the greater part of my life in Delhi, making Punjabi friends, eating thick butter chicken gravy and adjusting to foul-mouthed but good-natured ribbing that is the way of life in this city. So I was highly amused when I saw 'Vicky Donor' Ayushmann Khurana make sense of Yami Gautam's Bengali idiosyncrasies in the film. Here's my take on the whole Bengali-Punjabi culture clash. "Ghosh? Accha, Bengali?"...
01:14 PM, Apr 27, 2012
The 90s' actor who had refused to play the second lead in Bollywood movies said he had reasons to sign on the dotted line for 'Shanghai'. ...
05:04 PM, Apr 25, 2012
Kolkata: Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who starred in 14 celluloid classics of Satyajit Ray, says working with the master filmmaker was an exciting learning process. And he continues to inspire, even 20 years after his death. Saluting Ray's poetic, lyrical and artistic qualities, Chatterjee told IANS in an interview: "He is a special kind of poetic, lyrical, artistic visionary. If you see his films you can feel that such poetic,...
07:11 PM, Apr 23, 2012
Shah Rukh Khan, the brand ambassador of West Bengal inaugurated the Prayag Film City, which is being developed at a cost of Rs 1000 crore. ...
05:06 PM, Apr 17, 2012
Kolkata: After two back-to-back successful films, 'Autograph' and 'Baishe Srabon', filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee is all set to face the camera in this year's national award winner Anjan Dutta's film 'Dutta vs Dutta'. Srijit, 34, who had earlier turned up in Aparna Sen's 'Iti Mrinalini' in a significant role, said he would not speak much about his new assignment. "Anjan da is my mentor who has helped me evolve into a...
02:36 PM, Apr 03, 2012
Kolkata: Celebrating the spirit of womanhood, leading Bangla band Chandrabindoo has composed a song 'Somoyer Indrani' dedicated to the present day woman in appreciation to her multitasking role, the first such move by any music band here. "We value the role of present day women in our lives. We composed 'Somoyer Indrani' as a tribute to the role of a particular mother named Indrani who has brought up her daughter...
02:00 PM, Mar 23, 2012
Apur Sansar: For Apur Sansar, the final film in the Apu Trilogy, the great director plucked a young radio announcer and small-time theater actor from anonymity to play the titular role. Soumitra Chatterjee. Nurtured by Ray's genius, Soumitra brought to the world of light and shadows the unforgettable character of Apu, boyishly handsome, romantically intense and poetically fragile, journeying on the lyrical road of life, pushing aside the poverty, despondency...
12:03 PM, Mar 23, 2012
Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee talks about his role he played in Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy. ...
07:50 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: He turned down a national award 11 years back but legendary Bangla actor Soumitra Chatterjee is proud to recieve this year's Dada Saheb Phalke award, the highest recognition in Indian cinema. The 77-year-old actor had turned down the special jury award for best actor in 2001 to protest the bias of national film awards committee in selecting mainstream cinema. This time, however, the jury chose Soumitra over veterans...
05:26 PM, Mar 22, 2012
Kolkata: Iconic Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee said his being named for the Dada Saheb Phalke award " the highest honour in Indian cinema " is a recognition of his hard work in the last 53 years and expressed gratitude to directors like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and others for honing his acting skills. Chatterjee, 77, said it was an "emotional moment" for him and he would receive the award on...
03:54 PM, Mar 22, 2012
New Delhi: Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee will receive the 2011 Dada Saheb Phalke Award for lifetime contribution to cinema. Chatterjee, 77, who has won a National Award in 2008 for his film 'Podokkhep', is an iconic actor in Bengali cinema with a career spanning over half a century. Sources said the award jury has finalised 77-year-old Chatterjee's name and an announcement in this regard would soon be made. Recognised...
07:23 PM, Mar 21, 2012
Mumbai: They say love knows no language. And it looks like the new brand ambassador of West Bengal, Vidya Balan's fondness for Bengali has only got her closer to the love of her life. Vidya's beau Siddharth Roy Kapoor is half Bengali and the two apparently converse only in Bengali most of the time. Says a source, "Vidya has always said that she feels she was a Bengali in her...
12:04 PM, Mar 21, 2012
Kolkata:Sports journalist Gautam Bhattacharya's best-seller on achievers in different fields, chronicling their struggle in life since childhood, became the first Bengali book to be available on ebook platforms worldwide. Launched by US-based Databazar Media and Kolkata-based Object sol Technologies, the ebook would be available on both the Amazon Kindle and Apple I-Pad platforms, Managing Director of Databazar Infinity Kalyan Kar said. "The idea was first mooted by film director Aniruddha...
01:40 PM, Mar 14, 2012
Kolkata: Popular television actress and model Pooja Bose said she was ecstatic about her debut Bengali movie -- the most expensive Bengali feature film made till date. "I am very happy to be the part of the team. I have always dreamt of working in a Bengali film which has now has come true," the bong beauty said here. The movie, 'Macho Mastana', with a budget of Rs 7 crore...
02:35 PM, Feb 17, 2012
Kolkata: Actor Rahul Bose today hailed the resurgence in Tollywood, crediting young filmmakers for giving Bengali cinema a 'new birth'. "I call it middle of the road cinema. The (new Bengali) films are not art house nor commercial. They are giving box office revenues but are content driven, which is attracting the masses," Bose, in town to inaugurate a multiplex in neighbouring Howrah, said. "In between there was a slump...
01:01 PM, Feb 10, 2012
New Delhi: Yahoo! India and Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP) announced a partnership to deliver premium digital content in Bengali to the Indian Internet audience. The co-branded property bengali.yahoo.com will leverage the combined editorial strengths of ABP and Yahoo! India, a company statement said. Bengali content is the latest in language offerings from Yahoo! in India after Hindi, Tamil and Marathi. It offers fresh news ranging from politics, sports, entertainment from...
12:15 PM, Feb 09, 2012
New Delhi: Bengali cinema has come of age but a few more steps towards something new would not hurt. While on one hand they regularly dish out the commercial fare, they also pull out an occasional gem from the everyday and the common place. However, when it comes to relationships " as experimental and bold Bengali movies have tried to be " they are still a tad bit stereotypical and...
01:33 PM, Jan 20, 2012
